A Woman's Place is the Tri-System

Here's a great story from Privateer 2: The Darkening screenwriter Diane Duane. She posted the entry below as a reply on her Tumblr back in 2013 in response to a social media post about a man being obnoxious about women that play video games. If you aren't familiar with Diane Duane's incredible body of work, she's written for properties ranging from Star Trek (extensively!) to Marvel, Doctor Who, My Little Pony, Gargoyles, X-COM, seaQuest DSV and many others... all in addition to her own original properties like the ongoing Young Wizards. There's a good bet you have something she worked on in your collection right now! Her story has a timeless message and it manages to share some interesting behind-the-screens trivia about our favorite Privateer sequel:

I had to do this once with Privateer II: The Darkening. It gained a bit when he said "I bet you didn't play it through, I bet somebody just told you how..." and I was able to smile gently and say "God, possibly, since I wrote the game." And plainly the Deity was with me that day, as I happened to be carrying docs from my UK agent (who'd done the deal) that showed not only that I was the writer, but the five-figure sum I had been paid. ...It was a happy day for me. Not so much for him. I'd never had a referent for the word "slink" for a full grown male before. As in "slink away in utter dejection." I smiled for at least three days without stopping. And am smiling now...

What's funny is that until reminded just now, that moment had slipped my mind. I don't take any particular pride in smacking down fools. But when the Universe drops them so blatantly in front of me -- it being, as any Sherlock fan knows, rare for it to be so lazy as to stoop to coincidence -- it's the least I can do to cooperate.

...You have to understand that I felt, and still feel, very possessive about that game. It wasn't my first [Star Trek: The Kobayashi Alternative was] but it was the first time I worked with a really big team [all of whom I liked] and it gave me the opportunity to write for the most amazing cast: Clive Owen, David Warner, John Hurt, Brian Blessed, many other lovely people. [Try getting them all in a movie now.] For this work, though, I got to suffer the pains of Hell in that I spent nearly six weeks [in a couple of tranches] away from Peter, immured near EA UK in a Holiday Inn in Slough. ["OH LOVELY BOMBS COME FALL ON SLOUGH", etc.] It was fun and happy work, but I missed Peter like oxygen. (There were minor compensations, though. On the days when I was in-house at EA, my temp desk was around the corner from Erin Roberts', and the "alert" sound he had running in his computer at that point was the anguished cry of "Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man!" from William Shatner's pop-music album of years before, and now I can't ever hear that song without thinking of EA.)

But then after all that work, and the game itself released to not-so-bad reviews (though everybody raved about the footage, the game engine was said forever after to have been a bit buggy, but that wasn't my fault)... then, that afternoon in Oriel (it was a nice bar/restaurant in Sloane Square, gone now alas), remembering the pains that work had cost me -- to have some snotnosed baby-boy gamer in a shiny suit and a cheap tie come try to tell me that I did not understand the game structure that I can still remember whiteboarding for Erin Roberts and the rest of the team...?

I. Think. Not.

#boys #don't own #gaming #now #or ever

It seems like the only way to end this post... is with William Shatner's cover of Mr. Tambourine Man!

I Love It When a Scimitar Comes Together

Cpt. Streets is back to kick off another cool Wing Commander 3D print project... and this time it's everyone's favorite heavy gun slug, the CF-105 Scimitar! The model is 11.5cm (4.52") long and Streets promises to share more as painting and detailing happens. We're looking forward to it! You can also see their impressive Hornet here.

Reminder: #Wingnut Movie Night Tonight!

This is a reminder that we have another fun #Wingnut movie night planned on Discord this evening! The ongoing theme will be movies that are referenced by Wing Commander in some way. Tonight's film is Westworld (1973) and you can find details on why we're watching it in the announcement post here. The movie will start at 7 PM PST/10 PM EST but feel free to drop by and hang any time!

After Action Report: Zulu

Zulu was a more interesting film than we expected; certainly closer to Lawrence of Arabia than The Dambusters. The production values are spectacular, the story isn't a familiar one to Americans in 2025 and the acting is great. It's a big, bold movie that suffers less because it's a boring war movie and more because it's about the sort of war we no longer find familiar. Wing Commander movie club member bob was the person that found the Zulu reference in Action Stations in the first place and he noted that it's one of his favorite movies. We asked him if he wanted to say a few words about the film... and here they are!:

It's fitting that the line "because we're here" was the impetus to watch Zulu: it sums up the entirety of the film. William Forstchen may have reused it but the contexts could not have been more different. The pilots in Action Stations are fighting for not only their own lives but those of their families and country. The men of the 24th Regiment of Foot have no such noble motives: they're explicitly fighting for themselves and nothing else. They know nobody in this country and they give little thought to their own, except for the Welsh who we possibly learn more about than the Zulus. As for their cause, we can't judge it because the reasons why the war broke out are never explained. No appeals to Empire and the Queen here, or even any mention of them.

And yet despite, or perhaps because of, all this, there's a somber poignancy in the film's final moments. Michael Caine's character, Gonville Bromhead, is an aristocrat from a family of soldiers. At Caine's urging, he was rewritten from the pompous twit he starts out as to a more introspective character, who wishes, as the Zulus first attack, that he was not an officer and a gentleman, but a "damn drinker". And at the very end, surveying the battlefield after the British victory, he chokes out that he feels "sick" and "ashamed". It's not a sentiment that appears much in Forstchen's writing, nor in Wing Commander in general, with the notable exception of Academy.

And here's the scene that Action Stations... borrows...:

Happy Thanksgiving, WingNuts!

Today is Thanksgiving in the United States and so the Wing Commander CIC team would like to wish everyone a happy holiday. Thanksgiving is a time to stop and remember what we're grateful for and in these trying times, that is more and more the love and support of the Wing Commander community. Whether you're posting to the forums or watching movies with us on Discord or chatting back and forth on social media, our old group is still a bright light in my life. Thank you all!

Of course, a big part of Thanksgiving is... Pilgrims! With that in mind, we're reprinting the Confederation Handbook's history of the Pilgrim War, complete with the original illustrations. Did you know that the Pilgrims (or should we say McDanielites?) had this much backstory?

| query "pilgrim war, history" media=encyc, level=UNCLASSIFIED sort=bestmatch | return=1

(Excerpts from The Student's Encyclopedia, 123rd Edition, HarperCollins, Bonn, TERRA, 2653)

The first major interstellar military conflict, the Pilgrim War was fought between forces of the Terran Confederation and the colonial Pilgrim Alliance from 2631 to 2635, beginning with the Battle of Titan and ending with the fall of Peron. The Pilgrim Alliance surrendered unconditionally on 2629.334, after which all Alliance worlds were absorbed into the Terran Confederation.

VIEW ARTICLE

REF PILGRIM ALLIANCE/TERRAN CONFEDERATION/BATTLE OF TITAN
SIEGE OF PERON
>> ref pilgrim alliance

Thank you. Referencing PILGRIM ALLIANCE . . .

The Pilgrim Alliance

History

The historical roots of the Pilgrim Alliance lie in the solar expansion of the 22nd century and the ecocatastrophe of the 23rd. In 2167 the United Nations established Olympia Station, the first permanent human settlement on another planet. Supported by space stations on Phobos and Luna, the Olympia colony became the primary staging area for humanity's migration to the outer planets of the Sol system. By 2215 the U.N. had established further permanent colonies on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, placed research facilities on the satellites of Uranus and Neptune, and landed on Pluto. In that same timespan Terra became ever increasingly reliant on the outer planets for heavy industrial metals.

In 2219 the first of the Great Pandemics appeared. After the loss of Luna Station, the outer planets sealed themselves off entirely from earth. The rules were simple―for the duration of the medical emergency, no one from Terra could travel beyond the Legrange transit stations. Any colonist who chose to return to Terra could not return to space until such time as the quarantine was lifted.

It was possible for the outer planets to seal themselves off, because by this time the colonies were virtually self-sustaining. Oxygen and water could be obtained from the rings of Saturn and the ice caps of the larger outer moons, while mineral resources were prolific on Mars and the asteroid belt, with the resources of the outer moons held in reserve. More exotic compounds were being siphoned from the outer atmospheres of Jupiter and Saturn.

Terra, struggling against the ever rising tide of disease and famine, became increasingly reliant on the mineral wealth of the outer planets to sustain the remnants of its faltering production infrastructure. With fossil fuels virtually exhausted and the biosphere turning ever more hostile, Terra became completely dependent on the outer planets for fuel and the raw materials for self contained hydroponic systems that provided. Terra's only safe food supply.

These imports were dropped impersonally down Terra's gravity well, with no physical contact between Terra and her colonies. At first, Terra could trade data and cultural resources for these raw materials. However, the colonies became more self-sufficient and their indigenous culture continued to evolve, while Terra's data and cultural industries fell prey to the general economic and social chaos. The colonies were faced with an ever-increasing demand from Terra, but ever-diminishing expectations for fair payment. Meanwhile, on Terra, popular resentment was growing against the rich, healthy, and aloof extraterrestrials.

The Final Exodus

The emergent culture of the outer planets was ripe for new and radical philosophies. The most successful of these new worldviews arose from the writings of Ivar Chu McDaniel (2257-2311?), an organic chemist and lay- preacher assigned to the Neptune research base.

While stationed on Neptune, in 2294, McDaniel began to experience ecstatic visions. He believed that in these visions he experienced direct communion with the Divine, receiving prophetic revelations. He wrote of his experiences to friends on Mars, who encouraged him to collect and publish his insights.

McDaniel claimed that he had been chosen to receive his visions because he was a spiritually receptive individual located at the very fringe of human settlement of Sol system. McDaniel taught that the prophesied apocalypse had occurred, but divine judgment was confined to Terra itself. Those humans who had migrated to other worlds constituted an "Elect," destined for physical and spiritual salvation and protection. However, because of the pervasive corruption of Terra, the divine presence could not fully empower the Elect as long as they remained in the Sol system. To complete their salvation, the Elect must undertake the "Final Exodus," leaving Sol system entirely to seek spiritual and genetic perfection among the stars. In McDaniel's mystical cosmography, Terra was Hell, the universe at large was Heaven, and the remainder of Sol system constituted a sort of Limbo where the chosen remnant could prepare itself.

McDaniel's views gained momentum in 2304, with the discovery of the Morvan Drive (popularly known as the "hopper" drive), which allowed interstellar distances to be covered in a matter of months or years, rather than generations. By 2309 the Outer Planets Policy Council was firmly in the control of the McDanielites. In 2311 the first Morvan Colony ship was launched. Bound for the Sirius system, it contained 1200 colonists, including Ivar Chu McDaniel. The ship never arrived at its destination―orthodox pilgrim theology teaches that McDaniel and his crew were translated directly to a higher plane of existence, from which McDaniel continues to spiritually direct his followers.

Subsequent sloship efforts,were successful, however, to a degree that modern historians find frankly amazing. Missions to Alpha and Proxima Centauri, Cygnus and a second Sirius mission all arrived at their destinations and successfully established self sustaining settlements. By 2350 regular trade routes were being established between Titan and the Centauri colonies. It was during this time that the McDanielists began to refer to those who took passage on the colony ships as "Pilgrims."

As the interstellar colonies grew, Sol system continued to send out new sloships. It was the sacred duty of all McDanielists to emigrate, and only devout Pilgrims were permitted to participate in the exploration and colonization program. By the end of the 24th century the Exodus was complete all McDanielists had abandoned the Sol system. The effort depleted the Sol system colonies― outer planet populations in 2400 were less than a quarter of what they'd been a century before. Occasionally a semicovert trading mission from Sirius or Alpha Centauri would arrive at Mars or Titan, but little news would be exchanged.

Some time before 2450, the administrative center of the Pilgrim Alliance was established on Beacon, with the spiritual authority headquartered on McDaniel's World. From there, the Pilgrims began to push into the Vega sector.

Meanwhile, back on Terra, the ecocatastrophe had finally played itself out, and humanity began to reestablish its social order. In 2423 the quarantine of Earth was formally lifted and Earth began to once more interact with the rest of the Sol system. While the mineral resources of the outer planets were absolutely essential to the rebuilding of the Terrestrial industrial base, throughout most of the 25th century Solar humanity had little leisure to devote to exploration or pure research.

Nonetheless, the Pilgrims noted with some alarm that Terrestrials were once more venturing beyond the orbit of their own moon. In 2462 a heavily armed Pilgrim sloship entered orbit around Luna, demanding a meeting with Terra's leaders. The result of the following summit was the Treaty of Luna, which established Pilgrim title to all habitable worlds within 50 years sloship travel of Terra. Terra agreed to forsake all sloship exploration of other systems, and the Pilgrims agreed to a policy of strict non interference with Sol system affairs. A few, strictly limited trade agreements were also arrived at.

(lt is believed that sometime around 2500 the Pilgrims discovered the propulsion system that would come to be known as the Akwende, or "jump" drive. However, this development was kept secret from Terra.)

So matters stood for more than a century, until Terra's discovery of the Akwende Drive in 2588. A new breed of humanity began to reach out beyond its own star. Losses of exploratory missions were high far higher than for the early Pilgrim expeditions but 26th century Terra had the wealth and population to easily absorb the losses. Terrestrial explorations respected Pilgrim space, but jump routes were soon established that reached beyond the Pilgrim sphere. Sol began to establish colonies of its own, leaving Vega sector to the Pilgrims but expanding out towards Hawking and Gemini sectors. The Pilgrim alliance vigorously protested this expansion as a violation of the Treaty of Luna, but the newly christened Terran Confederation took the stance that the Luna accords only prohibited sloship colonization and direct encroachment on Pilgrim space, neither of which described Confed's current policy.

In 2615 a militant faction seized political and religious control of the Pilgrim Alliance. To this day, most Confed citizens remain bewildered by the intense Pilgrim hostility towards Terra. It must be understood that, to Pilgrims, Terrestrial humanity was divinely cursed by definition (in fact, although the leadership knew better, many Pilgrim colonists had been led to believe that humanity was completely extinct in the Sol system). That anyone other than the Elect (Pilgrims) should venture beyond the orbit of Pluto was at best blasphemous and at worst diabolic. On a more pragmatic note, the Pilgrim leadership was suddenly faced with having to share a galaxy which they had hitherto regarded as their personal domain.

The Pilgrim War

The Pilgrim leadership decided to cut off Terrestrial incursion at the source. At the time, all jump-capable ships were being built and launched from the Port of Titan space station. The Pilgrims assembled a jump-capable battle fleet and mounted a massive assault on the Port of Titan.

Evidence suggests that the Pilgrims expected to destroy Titan in a quick, surgical assault, then move on to a major show of force against Earth itself before returning to Beacon. On 2631.244, the fleet jumped into the Sol system. The Pilgrims planned for a overwhelming assault on a primitive and unprepared foe.

Instead, the Pilgrims discovered Confed to be strong, rich and ready for trouble. After three days of intense fighting around Saturn, the Pilgrims were repulsed with the Port of Titan station still intact. Believing they had proven their point, Confed offered a renewed round of negotiations with the Alliance. This offer was ignored.

The Pilgrims began an aggressive guerrilla action into Confed space, attacking colony worlds and disrupting shipping. On 2632.017, Pilgrim forces destroyed the Confed military outpost at Celeste, along with a mining colony on that world. One day later, Confed formally declared war against the Alliance.

Confed adopted a defensive posture and mobilized its industrial resources into a full war footing, while the Alliance, encouraged by early successes, continued its offensive against the more remote colonies. Confed colonials on worlds occupied by Pilgrim forces were placed under harsh and oppressive conditions. Mass executions were common, and millions were pressed into slave labor. While colonies still under Confed control were aggressively defended, little effort was expended to liberate occupied worlds. This was misinterpreted by Pilgrim leaders as a sign of weakness.

Instead, Confed was concentrating its resources on assembling a massive invasion force in the Sol system. Confed strategy was to not be drawn into an expensive and drawn-out hit-and-run battle with the Alliance, but instead to mount a coordinated invasion targeted on the center of Pilgrim power. On 2633.235, the Grand Fleet was launched. Over the course of the next five months Centauri, Sirius, Cygnus, Frase, and Bradshaw fell in rapid succession. Faced with mounting expenses and devastating losses, the increasingly desperate Pilgrims staked everything on an all-or-nothing defense of the agricultural colony of Peron, in the Luyten system. The siege of Peron held for seven months, while each side mounted increasingly brutal sorties and counter offensives, each trying to find some crack in the other's defenses.

After three days of intense fighting around Saturn, the Pilgrims were repulsed with the Port of Titan station still intact.

In the end, it was the Confed industrial machine and the resource wealth of the Sol system that carried the day. On 2634.288 the remnants of the Confed Grand Fleet were reinforced by a new strike force almost half again the size of the original. Peron's defenders were overwhelmed in two weeks of brutal fighting, and when the Confed joint fleets jumped into Beacon system on 2634.359, they were met with an offer of surrender. The Pilgrims offered to immediately stand down their military and dissolve the Alliance government in return for guarantees of the safety of Pilgrim civilians, and certain limited rights to autonomy for non-military Pilgrim worlds, particularly McDaniel, the spiritual center of the Pilgrim religion. After six weeks of negotiation, peace accords were signed at Cygnus on 2635.049, at which time the Pilgrim Alliance officially ceased to exist.

Post-War Pilgrim Remnants

Since the treaty, many former Pilgrims have been re-integrated into Confed society, either as individuals or on a system-wide basis. At this writing, three systems and five colonial enclaves remain semi-autonomous, with severely limited contact with the rest of the Confederation (although they remain subject to CSF observation and inspection against renewed military activity). Shortly after the surrender, the order went out from McDaniel that all remaining Pilgrims were to refrain from any space travel, as a collective penance for the war or, more specifically, for losing the war. Consequently, all practicing Pilgrims have applied for conscientious objector status in the Kilrathi conflict, and all Pilgrim colonies remain officially neutral. So far, even the loss of two Pilgrim systems to Kilrathi aggression, and ongoing Kilrathi incursions into former Pilgrim space, have done nothing to shake the order's neutrality.

New Lance Boils

CountvonSchnaps is back with even more thrilling takes on classic Wing Commander ships! This time they've updated the A-14 Raptor from Wing Commander I and the F-107 Lance (aka Dragon) from Wing Commander IV in their distinctive, wonderful style. Check 'em out!

Wing Commander I - A14 Raptor (DeviantArt)

As a request made for Shoguneagle depicting a lesser known Wing Commander fighter the A14 Raptor heavy fighter.

Armed with 2x Neutron Cannons, 2x Mass Driver guns and up to 6 hardpoints the Raptor was the mainstay for Confederation Space Forces during the early to middle part of the Terran-Kilrathi War.

After the war many of the fighters were sold to Landreich and even to the civilian market.

A fun design, which I rarely have seen so tried to stay close to the main layout and feel of the designs but making it a bit more in line of previous designs.

Wing Commander IV: F107 Lance (DeviantArt)

Another Wing Commander design made for Shoguneagle showcasing the Lance.

The F107 Lance, also known as Dragon, was employed by the shadowy black ops organization Black Lance in WIng Commander IV The Price of Freedom.

Sporting jump capabilities and a cloaking device the fighter was capable to both engage fighters and capital ships thanks to a weapon called the flash pack. A mine like device tat would attach to the enemy vessel's hull and would ignite the breathable atmosphere inside the targeted vessel.

Wing Commander Returns to 50% Discount, Academy Added to Preservation Program

What improvements we made to this game:

1.01 GOG v2 changelog (25 November 2025)

• Optimized the DOSBox configuration for better performance.
• Enabled Cloud Saves support.
• Fixed a crash that occurred when starting a non-gauntlet game.
• Stability validated.
• Fully compatible with Windows 10 and 11.

Wing Commander Movie Night: Westworld

The Wing Commander movie club reports that Zulu was a pretty interesting movie. It seemed like a fair treatment of history that most of us weren't particularly familiar with and it was certainly a lush production. More Lawrence of Arabia than Dam Busters, in our final analysis! For this week's movie we asked members to pick from a list of possible robots and they unexpectedly chose Yul Brynner. Which means that this week's movie is Michael Crichton's Westworld (1973), a famous science fiction scenario that also served as a kind of prototype for Jurassic Park. You can join us this Friday via Discord to watch along.

We're watching Westworld over a bit of a technicality! As we've mentioned before, the Wing Commander Universe map included in Wing Commander Prophecy filled out the Enigma Sector of space with star systems named after formative science fiction & fantasy writers. There are also a couple of systems named after film directors (Lucas and Spielberg in Enigma). But Michael Crichton is a case where he's both! He directed several films, including Westworld very succesfully, but he's best known today as the writer of thrillers like Congo and Jurassic Park. So we picked Westworld as the biggest film he'd directed, the same rule we're following for the others. With that in mind, we thought we'd kick off the week by generating a sort of 'reading list'. We've identified as many of the authors on the map as possible and tried to pick their most famous or important book in the list below.

Asimov Quadrant

• Asimov - Isaac Asimov - Foundation (1951)
• Blish - James Blish - A Case of Conscience (1958)
• Brin - David Brin - Startide Rising (1983)
• Card - Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game (1985)
• Clarke - Arthur C. Clarke - Childhood's End (1953)
• Crichton - Michael Crichton - Jurassic Park (1990)
• Ellison - Harlan Ellison - I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream (1967)
• Foster - Alan Dean Foster - Spellsinger (1983)
• Gibson - William Gibson - Neuromancer (1984)
• Piper - Henry Beam Piper - Space Viking (1963)
• Pohl - Frederik Pohl - The Space Merchants (1953)
• Pournelle - Jerry Pournelle - A Spaceship for the King (1973)
• Robinson - Spider Robinson - Stardance (1979)
• Sterling - Bruce Sterling - Schismatrix (1985)
• Vonnegut - Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse-Five (1969)

Isaac Quadrant

• Bradbury - Ray Bradbury - Martian Chronicles, The (1950)
• Harrison - Harry Harrison - The Stainless Steel Rat (1961)
• Niven - Larry Niven - Ringworld (1970)
• Zelanzny - Roger Zelazny - Lord of Light (1967)

Roddenberry Quadrant

• Roddenberry - Gene Roddenberry - Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
• Adams - Douglas Adams - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The (1979)
• Blake - William Blake - Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1789)
• Drake - David Drake - Hammer's Slammers (1979)
• Gerrold - David Gerrold - A Matter for Men (1983)
• Haldeman - Joe Haldeman - Forever War, The (1974)
• Heinlein - Robert Heinlein - Starship Troopers (1959)
• Herbert - Frank Herbert - Dune (1965)
• Lucas - George Lucas - Star Wars (1976)
• McCaffrey - Anne McCaffrey - Dragonflight (1968)
• Spielberg - Steven Spielberg - Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
• Steakley - John Steakley - Armor (1984)
• Stirling - S.M. Stirling - Marching Through Georgia (1988)

We'd love to hear any other suggestions if you have a signature story you think would make more sense! You can also find my full notes on the Enigma Sector names collected in a spreadsheet which includes all the systems that aren't named after authors and those where we haven't identified a reference at all: Arraman, Exile, Kalvan, Langston, Racene, Salayna and Wetland. It also lists the systems mentioned in Wing Commander II that aren't present on the Prophecy map, Fiddler's Green, Midian, Niffleheim, Sharm and Talbot. In an incredible coincidence, the sixth and final system mentioned in dialogue on Wing Commander II, Piper, accidentally appeared in the right place on the map in honor of H. Beam Piper!

Where can I find a copy of the movie for the watch party?

Westworld is available for rent or purchase on the standard streaming services. If you would like a physical copy, the movie was released on Blu-ray in 2016 and remains in print around the world. If you are not able to locate a copy please stop by the Discord and ping a CIC staff member before Friday's showing.

How do we watch the movie together?

It's pretty low tech! Simply join the Wing Commander CIC Discord on Friday and we will be chatting (in text) along with the film in the main channel. Everyone who wants to join in should bring their own copy and we will count down to play them together at 10 PM EST. Everyone is welcome and we encourage you to join in the conversation; sharing your thoughts helps make the experience better for everyone!

How can I help pick future movie club movies?

The movie club movies are voted on each week by the Wing Commander Discord. The poll is typically posted 24 hours before each week's screening and the next movie is announced at the end. The choices for the poll come from a master pool of Wing Commander-related movies. If you would like to suggest a film for inclusion in that pool you can post it to this thread.

Wings of Wing Commander

We thought it would be fun to catalog where uniform wings appear in the Wing Commander games. In the real military, wings, which are formally called aircrew badges, are not awarded only to pilots. Instead, they are worn by many different positions that operate aircraft. Astronaut wings are awarded to anyone that has flown in space. United States Army and United States Air Force aircrew badges are silver while the Navy equivalent is famously gold. In Wing Commander it's not totally clear… as we'll see below! In the original Wing Commander, pilots have wings on their service uniforms above the ribbons. The wings are silver and seem to feature a heart. Only active pilots are seen wearing them although Colonel Halcyon wears a similar pair of wings on his cap.

Wing Commander II is not 100% clear. The dress uniforms worn by Blair and Jazz have wings in the same place as the original game's service uniforms but the pilots' service uniforms seem to have pairs of wings on their collars. Admiral Tolwyn's uniform replaces these wings with stars, seemingly indicating his flag rank. All of these insignia are gold.

Privateer returns wings to the original position. Both Sandra Goodin and Admiral Terrell wear them. Both pairs are gold.

Wing Commander III introduces a totally distinct design for the wing insignia. Behind the screens documentation confirms that the gold-and-silver symbol worn on the left pockets of duty and dress uniforms in the game is intended to be the wings. Every main character wears them at some point, including Tolwyn, Eisen, Rollins and (at the funerals) Rachel. Wing Commander IV continues this trend, giving every character who wears a Confederation or Border Worlds the wings (including marine Decker).

Wing Commander Prophecy uses these same wings but is much more selective, giving them only to active pilots and Decker. A variety of characters that seemingly would wear them in WC3 and 4 do not including Finley, Anderson, CAG Drake and Captain Wilford (Rachel never wears a service uniform).

Wings make sporadic appearances in other Wing Commander material. The CTCG uses the Wing Commander III novel but apparently didn't have a great reference image to work for; many of the paintings give them unusual colored details.

Wing Commander Academy doesn't have wings worn day-to-day but the object of the series is to win the 'gold wings of the Cadet Wing Commander' which Blair is offered in the finale:

They're mentioned throughout the novels, including a scene in Action Stations where Tolwyn describes the pre-war process of earning wings. Voices of War, the Armada manual, mentions wings twice in odd ways. "Platinum plated wings" are said to be a prize for a flight simulator tournament and one of the character mentions the "brass wings Shotglass gave me after K'Tithrak Mang."

Finally, the movie has wings which appear on both the nametags and dogtags for any of the pilot characters, which are worn with both the service uniforms and the flightsuits. Angel's wings are gold rather than black, indicating her status as Wing Commander. Non-pilots do not have wings, including the bridge crew, the Pegasus crew and the background extras. There's also a line about wings, where the Deckmaster threatens to have Maniac's wings after his landing stunt.

Now Play Prophecy Advance on Your Wrist!

Reminder: #Wingnut Movie Night Tonight!

This is a reminder that we have another fun #Wingnut movie night planned on Discord this evening! The ongoing theme will be movies that are referenced by Wing Commander in some way. Tonight's film is Zulu (1964) and you can find details on why we're watching it in the announcement post here. The movie will start at 7 PM PST/10 PM EST but feel free to drop by and hang any time!

After Action Report: Contact

Everyone in the Wing Commander movie club agrees: Contact is a great film! It was especially nice to introduce it to one of our younger members so we could make sure it wasn't just our increasingly-old-man memories playing tricks on us. But it turns out it still has a message that resonates today… and we were more than a little sad seeing such a well done representation of a world that at least considers investing in science.

Contact is one of several movies that was used to 'temp track' developing cuts of the 1999 Wing Commander movie. We covered the track itself in the intro post so I thought it would be fun to run through one of Wing Commander's famous 'first contact' scenarios. No, not the Kilrathi; we've already covered the "Iason incident" pretty extensively. No, I'm talking about the Double Helix, a race often discussed but never actually seen. The original Claw Marks' Comm Relay section includes this article (by the late, great Aaron Allston) intended to give flavor for the newly created universe:

News From Earth (Sol III)

(New York, North American States, Terran News Services) - On 2654.080, representatives of the Committee for Interaction with Alien Intelligences announced contact with a new alien race. CIAI spokesman Iola Jonson made the following statement: "The CIAI regularly launches unmanned probes to uncharted jumpspheres; these probes contain our most sophisticated translation and interpretation equipment. Eight days ago, Probe Number H227 reappeared in a Terran jump-point carrying data and artifacts from a species we are currently referring to as the Double Helix.

From the information we have so far been able to interpret from H227's records, the Double Helix are a sentient race possessing space travel, and we are not ruling out the possibility they possess FTL drive technology. Physically, they appear to be carbon-based arthropods which communicate through scents and pheromones. Their name is derived from the double-helix shape of their spacecraft."

World Science Federation officials believe this to be the most significant contact with an alien species since the discovery of the Kilrathi, and hope that contact will remain friendly.

Note that the 1994 update to Claw Marks used in Super Wing Commander and Wing Commander for the SegaCD changes 'arthropod' to 'anthropoid' leaving much question as to whether the Double Helix are big lobsters or big monkeys. Maybe a little of both!

We don't hear much about the Double Helix again until the penultimate main series game, Wing Commander Prophecy. The ICIS manual's Nonhuman Historical Analysis article mentions them in such a way that it seems the Confederation of 2681 (27 years after their discovery in Claw Marks) now knows a fair amount about the Double Helix.

Likewise a superficial examination of Firekkan history shows contact with nothing similar, nor does the Double-Helix civilization (unsurprising, since the Double-Helix has very little concept of history in the human sense).

So how did we go from a probe with artifacts to understanding that the Double Helix don't have a concept of history? The Secret Ops fiction answers that question… and the story is a bit darker than Contact! Episode 3 features an e-mail thread called POSSIBLE SITUATION between Zero, Casey and Spyder where Zero brings up the Double Helix:

WITH THE KILRATHI WE HAD KNOWN MECHANICAL SYSTEMS THAT FUNCTIONED PRETTY MUCH LIKE OUR OWN, BUT THIS IS LIKE TRYING TO ANALYZE DOUBLE-HELIX INFO-STREAMS WITHOUT THE CORRECT HARMONIC FILTERS. THESE SHIPS ARE ORGANIC IN NATURE, HOW THEY FUNCION, OR WHAT THEIR STRUCTURAL MAKEUP IS IN ANY GIVEN STATE IS STILL UP FOR SPECULATION.

Spyder replies with the full story of how the scientist that attempted the contact ended up frying their brain:

THE DOUBLE-HELIX EXAMPLE IS A VALID ONE. WHEN DR. JUSTIN…WHAT WAS HIS NAME, KLIEN, KLING…ANYWAY…WHEN HE FIRST ATTEMPTED DIRECT COMMUNICATION THROUGH MODIFIED HOLO-LINK TRANSMISSIONS AND ENDED UP HAVING HIS CEREBELLUM FRIED BY A KEYED STREAM OF (LATER TERMED)FRENELI-COMPLEX HARMONIC SAMPLES, I'M SURE HE THOUGHT HE WAS PREPARED FOR ANYTHING. WHAT THE DOUBLE-HELIX ONLY INTENDED AS A WARM HELLO TURNED OUT TO BE A DIGITAL ICEPICK TO THE BRAIN.

It's not clear why everyone is screaming at each other, but all these little mentions together does show us the full story of the Double Helix, from the discovery of their spacecraft with a probe to the tragic first contact to the Confederation learning about how their society works! One final point of trivia, the Double Helix ALMOST appeared… in Warren Spector's original plan for what became System Shock (then called Alien Commander) the Double Helix played the villain… so in a real way, they're the direct ancestors of SHODAN!

Behind the Music: Hard?Cor!

Hard? Cor! Is a techno dance commune which performed a Tribal Rainforest Chip-Shop Alkali Soul set which incorporates local cultures. It was fronted by singer Wok-Eyes, who is known for his laid back, disinterested personality. The band has been described as "techno wizards" and "calcium-challenged bleep gods" and their music as "electic." They became popular with young people around 2790; fans called themselves the "Universe crew". They signed a three-album deal with Zak Skintight's Startled Productions that year. Wok-eyes commented "yeah, it's alright I suppose. Zak's a nice bloke, and we'll get to go to some really good parties. Can I go now?"

Also in 2790, Hard? Cor! hosted a series of three-day "be ins" on planets around the Tri-System including Janus IV which offered music, dancing, ethnic education and spiritual exploration. These were very popular among Hard? Cor!'s young audience but they were not well regarded by authorities. The be in events prompted an increase in illegal warp steroid sales wherever they were held, bringing unwanted dealers along with their audiences. This prompted increased police patrols.

At a performance on Bex, the group incorporated indigenous shamen in their dance routine and asked them to "do somethink a bit funky, knowwhatimeanlike?". In response, the shamen performed the Heap Big Thunder Rain Dance, which led to heavy rain and a surplus of fresh water. The government of Bex banned them from ever performing their set on the planet again. In response to the chaos associated with these events, the Intergalactic Congress passed new system legislation which allowed the CIS to fire on anyone that enters a 1500km exclusion zone around Hard? Core!'s venues. This was first put into place at a be in at an event scheduled to take place on the asteroid Bellerophon.

--

Hard? Cor! Is the second major Privateer 2 music group. Like Zak Skintight and the Buttock Men, their story is provided in a series of randomized news entries which any player might not even see in a usual playthrough. The idea is that they are a bit of a new age hippie techno group which causes chaos by attracting drug dealers to their Woodstock-style "be ins". Their lead singer, Wok-Eyes, is presented with a bit of a Morissey-style disaffected personality. Their story also intersects with Zak, as it's his Startled Productions that gives them a three-album deal.

New Hard? Cor! dates announced sets a Hard? Cor! event at a randomly chosen planet while Techno Prisoners! tells of one on Janus IV. Both of these trigger a 35% increase in warp steroid prices at the venue.

New Hard? Cor! dates announced
$CLIENT writes
Dance commune Hard? Cor! have revealed the plans for their next three-day 'be-in'. Set to take place on $LOCATION, it seems that we can expect the usual mix of right-on sounds, ethnic education and spiritual exploration. Police are worried that the event will attract Warp Steriod dealers, and are going to establish patrols around the planet.

Techno Prisoners!
Dave Cool is on the scene
Respect to Hard? Cor!, techno wizards extraordinaire, for organising this king-size love fest on the planet of Janus IV. The scene is kickin' up here, with all the beautiful people in attendance, going for it like never before. Frontman Wok-eyes is banging it out on the mic, raising a real special feeling here. We're vibed, man, and its only getting better; this one's special, so if you're in the area, get on down and get them dancing trousers working. There's Warp Steroids for sale all over the shop, but the way this one's shaping up, we're gonna need more and how! Peace and love, Universe crew.

Hard?Cor! sign for Startled announces that they've partnered with Zak Skintight:

Hard?Cor! sign for Startled
Music hack Terry Young reports
Titans of techno Hard?Cor! signed up for the big-time yesterday, when they clinched a three-album deal with Startled Productions, the label owned by music legend Zak Skintight. Frontman Wok-eyes seemed unperturbed by the news, saying 'Yeah, it's alright I suppose. Zak's a nice bloke, and we'll get to go to some really good parties. Can I go now?'

Rave off! tells the story of their disastrous Bex concept. It signifies a 40% decrease in fresh water on the planet.

Rave off!
Brian Turnell champion of truth, speaks out.
Intergalactic dance fiends Hard? Cor! were yesterday banned from performing their eclectic Tribal Rainforest Chip-Shop Alkali Soul set on the planet of Bex ever again. The reason? It seems the calcium-challenged bleep gods had incorporated a number of indigenous shamen in their dance routine, telling them to 'do somethink a bit funky, knowwhatimeanlike?'. The tribal holy men thus performed the pride of their repertoire, the Heap Big Thunder Rain Dance. It has yet to stop raining on Bex, and Fresh Water is in abundance. We asked Hard? Cor! frontman Wok-eyes for comment, but his jaw was clenched too tightly to speak properly.

Finally, the very last CIS Bulletin (and overall news story) in the game announces that the CIS is now going to shoot to kill at Hard? Cor! concerts.

CIS Bulletin
This is a warning to any individuals intending to attend an illegal gathering being promoted by a popular youth music act known as 'Hard?Cor!'. Under new system legislation, the CIS are authorised to fire upon those who attempt to enter the 1500km exclusion zone which has been established around the asteroid Bellerophon, the designated venue for the event. You have been warned.

PC Games Draws a Bisley Scene

In late 1994, PC Games magazine commissioned famed UK comic artist Simon Bisley to create six covers for their magazine. The February 1995 issue featured Wing Commander III in honor of the magazine's review of the game. We've taken a look at the issue itself to get a closer look!

Wing Commander III is the cover story and the artwork is reprinted several times…

... including in a nice clear full page just before the review itself! Neat.

The 'team talk' section also has the magazine's crew praising Wing Commander III. And the issue included a cover disc that had both the Wing Commander III demo and a copy of the Behind the Screens program!

Behind the Music: Zak Skintight and the Buttock Men

Zakariah Skintight has been called the galaxy's most famous musician and one of the most remarkable success stories of the 28th century. He performs as lead singer and Nuclear Banjo player with his band, The Buttock Men. He is known for his laid back attitude, typically commenting only that "it's a bit of a larf, innit" when his antics cause a disaster. He was born Zakariah Frump on Janus IV in 2740 or 2761, the son of a Bex farmer. He was poorly educated and had a SIQ of 90; nevertheless, he took to rock music naturally. He moved to Anhur in 2778 and by 2782 had become famous on the planet for his outrageous exploits and musical ability.

By 2790, he owned a mansion on Hermes. Skintight owns Startled Productions which publishes his music and in 2790 signed a three-album deal with Hard? Cor!. In 2790, the studio released the band's long-waited album No Butts. It included hit songs Show me your scars, Kiss the ring, Ain't got no nostrils, Baby and I'll give you a million (if you touch me there again). Another smash hit was Jump (and I'll show you my Y-fronts), during performances of which Skintight would reveal his studded leather underwear. Skintight also held the Spittle Crown in the All-System Dribbling Competition until 2787. He returned to the competition on Crius in 2790 after three years of touring and again took the title despite the event attracting the largest number of competitors in its history. Around 2788, the band began a heavy tour schedule. In 2790 they performed their Rock Icon tour on planets around the Tri-System. A trajedy occured during a concert on Hermes when the A, B and E stands at Cephalalgia stadium collapsed after concertgoers started bouncing along to Jump (and I'll show you my Y-fronts)!. Disaster also struck the final tour performance at Tinnitus Stadium on Bex when 350,000 fans attempted to attend the show despite the venue only ticketing 120,000. An armed conflict broke out between ticket holders and those that missed out, ultimately lasting two weeks and prompting increased weapons sales on the planet. Skintight and his band are known for their excesses, with a notorious fondness for Talcum Powder, Bex Beer, Bexian Brandy and Pleasure Borgs. This has prompted police to increase teir presence at his performances. He has been charged with over 103 counts of Possession, Criminal Damage and Public Disorder.

The band was particularly known for their lavish and excessive parties. In 2790, the band held a "50th birthday" party for Skintight at his mansion on Hermes which attracted 75,000 people and increased local sales of Bex Beer, Warp Steroids and Sunflowers. Skintight gave an impromptu performance while drinking a gallon jug of beer through a straw in his nose. The event lasted over two months was later called "the biggest party of all time." He also held a 'Piss-up in a Brewery' party at the Braufƒhrer ale plant on Karatikus, whicih was named after a comment from an unhappy groupie. During the party, which was generally well regarded, he attempted to give a 200kph tour of the factory in his new Thashmobile 5000. The car crashed into the brewery's main storage tank and flooded the entire plant. Skintight was badly injured on Janus IV after getting high on Sunflowers and falling into the pen of the Hadeian Devil Yak at the Janus IV Zoo. Eight of the yaks attacked him for twenty minutes before he could escape, giving him blood poisoning from their bristles. Hundreds of fans attempting to rescue him were also poisoned, prompting authorities to put out a call for additional stocks of blood. Skintight survived and later said of the accident that "it wasn't much of a larf, mate."

--

Zak Skintight is a fascinating and almost hidden story in Privateer 2. His story is told through ten of the news updates that appear randomly each time you land your ship. They tell of a superstar rock and roll-style musician who lives to excess but is (almost) always unperturbed by the disasters that his various stunts take. Zak is first introduced in the character database in the booth; he's the only unlocked entry that doesn't seem to connect directly to something going on in Lev's story. Almost all of Zak's updates are actually game-related: the various disasters he causes change the price of commodities at the planets mentioned.

Skintight, Zakariah
29
Janus IV
Rock Musician
Ne Zakariah Frump, he is probably the galaxy's most famous musician, and still upheld as a youth icon despite his humble upbringing. The son of a Bex farmer, he left for Anhur at the age of 17, and within 4 years had already achieved planet-wide fame for his outrageous exploits and musical ability. Poorly educated and with an SIQ of only 90 [sub-average], he is nevertheless one of the century's most remarkable success stories.
Criminal Record: Over 103 counts of Possession, Criminal Damage and Public Disorder.

Behind the scenes: Privateer 2 programmer Paul Hughes kindly reported that the photograph used for Zak's booth entry is actually Paul Chapman, the designer of the game's spectacular UI and its original European packaging, who played bass in a band when he was in college. He's the person in the left front row of the team photo.

Zak's first appearance is in Zak arrives on [planet] which will choose a random planet for a concert with the Buttock Men. It prompts a 20% increase in the price of warp steroids, Bex Beer and pleasure borgs on the planet in question.

Zak arrives on $LOCATION
Music reporter $CLIENT writes
Well, Zak Skintight and his band, the legendary Buttock Men, have just arrived on $LOCATION to play their latest gig. The excitement on the planet is palpable, with everyone thrilled to bits at the prospect of seeing the system's most famous musicians. There is a significant police presence, however, due to Zak and his retinue's notorious taste for Talcum Powder, Bex Beer and Pleasure Borgs.

In Zak says...'No Butts' we get an advertisement for his latest album and confirmation that yes it is all butt themed. This one doesn't impact the game world.

Zak says...'No Butts'
NEW from Zak Skintight and the Buttock Men, their long-awaited album, 'No Butts'.
Featuring smash hits like:
Show me your scars
Kiss the ring
Ain't got no nostrils, baby
I'll give you a million (if you touch me there again)
Out NOW from Startled Productions, only 49 creds

The Buttocks' Biggest Bash! tells the story of Zak's crazy 50th birthday party. That's a bit of a contradiction with the initial bio, though, which says he's only 29! It marks a giant 75% increase in the price of warp steroids, sunflowers and Bex beer on Hermes.

The Buttocks' Biggest Bash!
Randy Yelp, socialite scribbler, writes
Well, I'm here at rock legends The Buttock Men's biggest party of all time, being held to celebrate lead singer Zak Skintight's 50th birthday. There's at least 75,000 people here in Zak's palatial mansion on Hermes, each choking down as much Bex Beer and Warp Steroids as they can get their hands on. As I write Zak is performing an impromptu number on the Nuclear Banjo while drinking a gallon jug of Beer through a straw up his nose. The question is, how long can it last? The party's been going for two months already, and guests are clamouring out for more entertainment. What do you think, Zak? 'It's a bit of a larf, innit'.

He causes further problems on Hermes in Zak brings the house down! by accidentally destroying part of a stadium during a show. This causes a 25% increase in the price of all industrial goods on the planet.

Zak brings the house down!
Starsky Blackstone mixes with the stars
Work started today on the reconstruction of the Cephalalgia stadium on Hermes, which partially collapsed while playing host to Rock hyperstar Zak Skintight and his band, The Buttock Men. Trouble started when the band ripped into their smash hit 'Jump (and I'll show you my Y-fronts)!'. The crowd promptly started bouncing around like loons, desperate for the sight of Zak's studded leather underwear, when A, B and E stands suddenly collapsed, crushing around 250 fans to death. Contractors have offered excellent prices for Industrial materials necessary for repairs. We asked Zak for his comment, to which he replied 'It's a bit of a larf, innit'.

Now that's what I call Death Metal is another disasterous concert story that ends in an active conflict between ticket-holders and fans who couldn't get in. It causes a 20% increase in Firearms on Bex.

Now that's what I call Death Metal
says our music correspondent, Jose Qire
Scenes of chaos abound at the Tinnitus Stadium, host to the last performance of The Buttock Men's Rock Icon tour of Bex. Over 350,000 eager fans descended on the stadium in the hope of getting tickets; only 120,000 were successful, and the lucky ticket-holders were immediately set upon by desperate fans. What started as an undignified scuffle has degenerated into a full-blown armed conflict, and planetary stocks of Firearms are low. The band have been trapped in the stadium for two weeks, though I managed to interview lead singer Zak Skintight while he sat in his dressing room, sipping a pint of Bexian Brandy. When asked what he thought of the conflict, he replied 'It's a bit of a larf, innit'. Way to go, Zak.

In Rash crash causes splash at flash bash lash-up Zak crashes the Thrashmoible 5000 into a brewery on Karatikus driving up prices of lythia by 15%.

Rash crash causes splash at flash bash lash-up
Hack from hell Eno Barbus gives a report from the sharp end
Great reports from Rock emperor Zak Skintight's 'Piss-up in a Brewery' party at the Braufƒhrer ale plant on the planet of Karatikus. The result of a rash comment by a disillusioned groupie, it really has to be one of Zak's best bashes to date. One event slightly marred the celebrations, when Zak gave me an impromptu high-speed tour of the plant in his brand new Thrashmobile 5000. The 200kmh jaunt came to somewhat premature conclusion when Zak piled the 80,000 cred roadster into the brewery's main storage tank. The whole plant is now thoroughly flooded, and Lythia, a substance which absorbs water and carbon dioxide, is much in demand.

Zak himself is finally injured in Pack of Black Yaks attack Zak!. This is the first one that *isn't* 'much of a larf'. 20% increase in bood prices on Janus IV.

Pack of Black Yaks attack Zak!
Belinda Keel is there to offer comfort
Zak Skintight, lead singer of rock funsters The Buttock Men, was in hospital on Janus IV last night, suffering from blood poisoning. It seems that Zak, giddy on Sunflowers, managed to fall into the pen of the ferocious Hadeian Devil Yak at the Janus IV Zoo. 5 metres high at the shoulder, black as midnight and covered in highly poisonous bristles, eight of these fearsome beasts savaged Zak for a good twenty minutes before the star made his escape. Hundreds of fans assaulted the Yaks in revenge, only to suffer the same fate as their idol. Blood is urgently required, although Zak appears stable (for once, eh?). How do you feel, Zak? 'It wasn't much of a larf, mate'.

The last entry is The Zak is back!, which is... very gross. And it causes a 25% decrease in fresh water on Crius.

The Zak is back!
Impressionable groupie Andrew Bramley-Hill writes
It was the best of days and the worst of days on Crius yesterday, host to the All-System Dribbling Competition. Zak Skintight, legendary frontman of Rock superbeings The Buttock Men, regained the Spittle Crown after a three year absence due to touring and unconsciousness. Unfortunately, so many competitors entered that a huge 'pool of drool' has resulted, emitting a noisome stench. Once it has been processed there will be a considerable surplus of Fresh Water, although it will be recommended for agricultural use only. 'It's a bit of a larf, innit', said Zak when we asked him for comment.

Wing Commander Movie Night: Zulu

No surprise this week: everyone in the club still loves Contact (and greatly misses a world that would've allowed such a story to be believable). This time around we decided to choose another war movie. We watched a LOT of war movies early on because they were things Chris Roberts or others specifically cited when talking about Wing Commander. Our options now are a little more obscure! We voted to go with the 1964 epic historical drama Zulu which tells the story of the 1879 Battle of Rorke's Drift. If we're being honest, we're getting The Dambusters vibes already! You can join us this Friday via Discord to watch along.

Our most direct Wing Commander connection going into the movie is that Dr. Forstchen borrowed/quoted a famous exchange of dialogue from the movie in Wing Commander: Action Stations. In his version, it's Confederation fighter pilots at McAuliffe preparing to fly to their nearly certain doom covering the Concordia's escape:

Geoff sighed and nervously clicked his mike again. He suddenly realized that, though he had been tested before, here indeed might be the final and ultimate test. Part of him wanted to scream out that he deserved a rest, that he had played the hero, had done his bit, and now it was time for someone else, that it had to be time for someone else.

"Hey, leader, why us?" someone called sarcastically.

Hawkins chuckled sadly. "Because we're here, lads, because we're here."

The cynical exchange somehow braced Geoff. For that, after all, was indeed the logic and reason behind it all, because he was here it would always be his turn, and would continue to be his turn as long as he decided to place himself in harm's way.

Less directly, the Wing Commander IV novel mentions Captain Eisen's Zulu heritage and specifically what his ancestors must've looked like slaughtering Englishmen:

"Home, sweet home," Eisen replied. "Welcome aboard, Chris." He grinned again, a fierce warrior's grimace that showed Blair what Eisen's Zulu ancestors must have looked like while they were slaughtering Englishmen. "We sure as hell need you."

And here's what that looked like in the game! It's actually a rare case of being able to physically describe the character in the novelization because Eisen had already been cast in the previous game.

Where can I find a copy of the movie for the watch party?

Zulu is available for rent or purchase on the standard streaming services. If you would like a physical copy, the movie was released on Blu-ray in 2009 and remains in print around the world. The current distributor currently streams it for free on YouTube. A copy is available for download on the Internet Archive. If you are not able to locate a copy please stop by the Discord and ping a CIC staff member before Friday's showing.

How do we watch the movie together?

It's pretty low tech! Simply join the Wing Commander CIC Discord on Friday and we will be chatting (in text) along with the film in the main channel. Everyone who wants to join in should bring their own copy and we will count down to play them together at 10 PM EST. Everyone is welcome and we encourage you to join in the conversation; sharing your thoughts helps make the experience better for everyone!

How can I help pick future movie club movies?

The movie club movies are voted on each week by the Wing Commander Discord. The poll is typically posted 24 hours before each week's screening and the next movie is announced at the end. The choices for the poll come from a master pool of Wing Commander-related movies. If you would like to suggest a film for inclusion in that pool you can post it to this thread.

Dueling Sales Discount Wing Commander 50%

Reminder: #Wingnut Cartoon Party TODAY!

This is a reminder that we have another fun #Wingnut event happening on Discord this morning! Join us at noon EST/9 AM PST for a fun filled morning of television... that all connect to Wing Commander somehow! This time around we've got a classic documentary about the Cold War AND the first arc of Exosquad, the 1993 animated series that brought together the creative team that would go on to make Wing Commander Academy. You can find details on the shows included as well as how to watch along with us in the announcement post here. Be sure to download the episodes so they're ready to play with the group!

Reminder: #Wingnut Movie Night Tonight!

This is a reminder that we have another fun #Wingnut movie night planned on Discord this evening! The ongoing theme will be movies that are referenced by Wing Commander in some way. Tonight's film is Contact (1997) and you can find details on why we're watching it in the announcement post here. The movie will start at 7 PM PST/10 PM EST but feel free to drop by and hang any time!

And don't forget our fourth Wing Commander Cartoon party is early tomorrow!

After Action Report: Casablanca

There's no denying that Casablanca is an all time classic film! It's timeless, snappy and clever with some of the greatest performances ever put to film. It's also unfortunately more timely than ever today in a world that's once again figuring out how to fight fascists.

The Wing Commander connection was pretty easy this time around: here's Casablanca's legendary final line compared to Minx's in Special Operations 2!

News Bulletins Cataloged

We've finished a long-awaited addition to the WCPedia: a complete collection of screenshots showing all 233 Privateer 2: The Darkening News Bulletins! We've also included game-extracted text, scans from the official guide and new info and nav boxes to make exploring them much easier. Privateer 2 players may remember the bulletins as the system by which the game offers big changes to commodity prices. One is selected each time you land and available in the Booth. Some of them are tabloid articles, some are advertisements and some mark changes to pricing because of current events (a flood might reduce the price of water on a certain planet and so on). Many people don't pay attention to the text in Privateer 2 and I think that's a mistake: the game's designers wrote a fat novel worth of text for the Booth and the various missions and it expands the Tri-System and the Wing Commander universe in so many interesting ways!

As part of the process we squared each entry name to the sometimes-slightly-different one listed in the official guide. And in the process we made a pretty interesting discovery. The guide lists a title, "I'm just an 'armless orphan, guv", which doesn't appear in the actual game. For decades we assumed it was just a last minute cut. But by arranging everything in a spreadsheet we discovered that it was actually simply a case of one entry being renamed at the last minute. In the final game that bulletin is present but changed to Carts of Parts hit the Marts! You can find the complete News Bulletin index and more information about how they work here. I've also started an informal diary on the wiki to document what I'm doing. I'm hoping it will inspire others interested in joining a big, open project with a lot of fun work left to do!

Pretty Prophecy Prototype Procured

Here's a fun discovery: a game preservation group has posted a prototype copy of Wing Commander Prophecy on the Internet Archive! It includes all three discs complete with high resolution scans. They have a great writeup of what's included in the readme with details which you can find below. Since this looks to be a review copy sent out only a week before the game was finished it's likely not too different from the final release. But when it comes to studying this kind of history... every bit helps! (Please laugh.) We've mirrored a copy here.

=========================== Wing Commander: Prophecy ===========================
-------------------------- (1997-12-02 PC prototype) ---------------------------

Dumped By: Cut Into Fourteen Pieces

Released By: CVLT OF OSIRIS

CVLT OF OSIRIS presents a prototype of Wing Commander: Prophecy for the PC from 1997-12-02 (about a week before the game was released).

This release includes a three disc set of Wing Commander: Prophecy discs. The discs are EA branded CD-R media, and were from a build given to members of the press. No other Wing Commander: Prophecy discs were obtained from the same source, so CVLT OF OSIRIS members believe that this is a set of three discs sent as a single review build of the game.

Each disc in the set has a different version number, and the discs were created on different days. However, all three also appear to be consistent with the release build of the game.

Disc 1 is version 1.05F, dated 1997-12-02 on its printed label. Timestamps on this disc also indicate it was finalized on 1997-12-02.

Disc 2 is version 1.03F, dated 1997-11-27 on its printed label. Timestamps on this disc indicate it was finalized on 1997-11-30.

Disc 3 is version 1.01F, dated 1997-11-27 on its printed label. Timestamps on this disc indicate it was finalized on 1997-11-27.

Behind the Music: Eddie Rickenharp

Eddie Rickenharp is mini-mono artist who has attained megastar status and is best known for repopularizing his genre of music. In 2669, Rickenharp agreed to perform for Confederation forces on Bistango X in a spectacular concert amidst the planet's ancient art treasures. The Kilrathi launched a surprise assault on the planet during the concert which killed thousands and left the artwork in ruins. Rickenharp was badly wounded in the attack and left in critical condition.

--

Last time we looked at tHE lOVE aNIMALS, a band introduced in Wing Commander III that doing a TCSO-style performance for the troops. But Wing Commander III actually introduces a second artist with the same setup: "megastar" Eddie Rickenharp. He also has a fictional-but-familiar-seeming genre, "mini mono" and you get the sense that he's some kind of Steven Tyler-style aging superstar in 2669. Rickenharp appears in two of the TCN 'newsbriefs' that only appear in the 3DO and PlayStation ports of the game. In the first, Barbara Miles announces that he will be playing a concert on Bistango X. This news segment can appear starting in the Locanda series:

Scene 514

NEWSBRIEF 15 -> 15NWSNC

This newsbrief can be available anywhere from Series D through Series I.

BARBARA
. . . and now one from our People file: Megastar Eddie Rickenharp, who single-handedly brought back mini-mono as a popular musical genre, has agreed to entertain Confederation forces amidst the ancient and exquisitely beautiful antiquities of Bistango X. This is Barbara Miles with a TNC InfoBurst . . .

And then later in the game, starting with the Behemoth missions, there is a terrible update about the fate of the concert:

Scene 515

NEWSBRIEF 16 -> 16NWSNC

This newsbrief should be available from Series J through Series N.

NOTE: Though no scripted midgame currently exists that might complement this newsbrief, it may be possible for Origin’s graphic artists to come up with some matching animation.

BARBARA
. . . elsewhere on the war front, a blitzkrieg Kilrathi assault has taken the lives of thousands of Confederation servicepeople as they were enjoying a concert put on by the megastar Rickenharp - - against the backdrop of Bistango X’s priceless, millennia-old art treasures. The surprise attack has reduced the beautiful ancient structures to rubble and Rickenharp himself is said to be in critical condition.
-> (beat)
This is Barbara Miles with another TNC InfoBurst. Thanks for watching . . .

Bistango, invented here, is referenced again on Prophecy's Wing Commander Universe Map, though it's unfortunately spelled "Bistangio". Eagle-eared listeners may note that Barbara Miles pronounces the Roman numeral "ex" instead of ten in the first news briefing. The place is typographically cursed! The story is slightly continued in Wing Commander Arena's manual, which mentions that the ancient artwork destroyed in the story is now protected ruins (and the source of more conflict).

Wing Commander Movie Night: Contact

Last week we kicked off the second year of the Wing Commander movie club with an all time classic movie, Casablanca. And this week we've got another one that's a little closer to home: Robert Zemeckis' Contact (1997). It's a stunning adaptation of Carl Sagan's novel about a present-day first contact with an extraterrestrial intelligence. You can join us this Friday via Discord to watch along.

Contact came after almost all of the main line Wing Commander games, so you know this is most likely to relate to the 1999 movie. Indeed, this is another case where Chris Roberts borrowed some of Alan Silvestri for the temp track to the Wing Commander movie. Specifically, a track called Small Moves was used over Maniac and Rosie's postcoital moment.

Of course, Wing Commander has a couple of disastrous first contact stories that we'll take a look at, too… stay tuned for the after action report next week!

Where can I find a copy of the movie for the watch party?

Contact is available for rent or purchase on the standard streaming services. If you would like a physical copy, the movie was released on Blu-ray in 2010 and remains in print around the world. If you are not able to locate a copy please stop by the Discord and ping a CIC staff member before Friday's showing.

How do we watch the movie together?

It's pretty low tech! Simply join the Wing Commander CIC Discord on Friday and we will be chatting (in text) along with the film in the main channel. Everyone who wants to join in should bring their own copy and we will count down to play them together at 10 PM EST. Everyone is welcome and we encourage you to join in the conversation; sharing your thoughts helps make the experience better for everyone!

How can I help pick future movie club movies?

The movie club movies are voted on each week by the Wing Commander Discord. The poll is typically posted 24 hours before each week's screening and the next movie is announced at the end. The choices for the poll come from a master pool of Wing Commander-related movies. If you would like to suggest a film for inclusion in that pool you can post it to this thread.

Wing Commander Cartoon Party IV: The Prices of Freedom

It's time for another Saturday Wing Commander cartoon marathon… with real cartoons, this time! These marathons, currently scheduled monthly, celebrate Wing Commander-related media that doesn't quite fit with the Friday night movie club. This Saturday, November 15, we'll be bringing you another themed morning of '90s media and great Wing Commander conversation. This time we'll be taking a look at the management of the real life Cold War… and then the start of a pretty compelling sci fi version!

Pandora's Box, Episode 2: To the Brink of Eternity (1992): Pandora's Box is a 1992 BBC series by documentarian Adam Curtis which looked at various sociopolitical issues facing the world at the time (most of which are still relevant today). The second episode, To the Brink of Eternity, looks at how the United States has managed nuclear security through the Cold War. It's a fascinating show but we're watching because the original Wing Commander makes a surprise appearance!

Exosquad (1993, s1e1 through 5): Sometimes called the first "American anime", Exosquad was a 1993-94 syndicated cartoon from Universal which embraced complete serialization at a time when that was unheard of even for adult series'. Over two seasons, Exosquad tells the story of a near future war for the solar system that on its own should be pretty appealing to Wing Commander fans. Of special interest, though, is that the creative team that made Exoquad went on to create Wing Commander Academy for the same studio. And you're going to see a lot of similarities in aesthetic and writing! The first arc, Fall of the Human Empire, is five episodes and it's going to leave you wanting more.

So JOIN US on Saturday, November 15th at noon Eastern when we'll enjoy them all together! Previous marathons, we've had big fun wearing pajamas and eating cereal… so we recommend you plan to do the same again!

We've also uploaded a zip of both together locally that you can grab in advance. You can get that here. You can also find the complete Exosquad series on the Internet Archive. Pandora's Box is available on YouTube here.

How do we watch the shows together?

It's pretty low tech! Simply join the Wing Commander CIC Discord on Saturday and we will be chatting (in text) along with the shows in the main channel. Everyone who wants to join in should download their own copies from the CIC and we will count down to play them one at a time together starting with the short at noon EST on Saturday. Everyone is welcome and we encourage you to join in the conversation; sharing your thoughts helps make the experience better for everyone!

Will there be custom certificates made for the attendees this time?

Yes.

Hey you're actually watching cartoons this time so the name makes sense!

Shut up.

I love these events but want to do better long term planning. Do you have any others coming up?

We do! Here's the upcoming schedule:

• Marathon 5 - Wing Commander Combat Information Center Family Day! - December 20
• Marathon 6 - I'd Rather Be Playing Wing Commander - January 17
• Marathon 7 - The Worst Parts of a Lot of Things - February 14

Prophecy Unlimited POWER!!!

### WCPUNL Beta 6.1

Support for both CD and GoG installations using the prophecy.exe supplied in this package. A CD check is done, if no CD is found a local file check is performed. If no local files found, Change CD screen will appear.

### WCPUNL Beta 6.0

Fixed memory leak in the new Movie Player

Turret barrel fire respects wcpunl.ini setting again

File loading priority changed so directory has priority over tree file (no need to patch data.tre anymore)

### WCPUNL Beta 5.2

Fixed spaceflight music not restarting after an in-flight cutscene (last mission).

### WCPUNL Beta 5.1

ODVS's HD and original DVD movie support. Added to Prophecy only.

Many thanks to Pedro for testing and updating the OpenGL to take full advantage.

### HD and DVD Requirements
Download ODVS's Prophecy HD Video Pack or the original DVD Movie Pack from the www.wcnews.com Resources/Patches page and extract into the 'movie' folder within WCP's root folder.

Ignore instructions to install the DVD Movie Upgrade Patch as this seems to be having problems with more recent Windows (hence this update).

ODVS's HD Video Pack:
Seems to work straight away with no additional codec packs installed. Tested on a fresh install of Windows 11 N 25h2 with Media Feature Pack added (required to play WCP and SO on N and KN versions).

DVD Movie Pack:
1. Download and install MPEG2 free from the Microsoft store. https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9N95Q1ZZPMH4
2. Windows 11 24h2 and later fresh install, install the Windows Dolby Audio package. (included)

No overlay window is created, no need to match resolutions. Uses existing GL movie function.

Movies will work in the original Software, Direct3d and 3Dfx Glide modes.

Movies will work in the OpenGL 1.2 and earlier, not filling wide-screens.

Movies will work in the OpenGL 1.3 and later, fills wide-screens.

Gamma Correction, Show Movies and Subtitles in game options work.

Even Interlaced Video will work in the original modes for a retro look!

gr1mre4per has also released a new version of the Wing Commander OpenGL Patch alongside the updated Prophecy Unlimited. You can download a copy of OpenGL Patch - v1.3 here.

Code: OpenGL Patch - v1.3

This patch is an additional optional graphics library (GL), compatible with both Prophecy and Secret Ops, and is ported from the release of Standoff Episode 5.

Originally designed to remove problems experienced when using Direct3D such as 32bit support for ATI cards, and removal of texture glitches.

The patch has since evolved into a specific visual style, featuring specular maps and slightly over-the-top bloom. This patch just screams 2000s, and I strongly recommend using it with both bloom and specular enabled. It supports hi-res, specular and iridescence overrides, as well as fairly dodgy implementation of bump mapping.

With Grim's help, the GL has been modified to support his HD movie playback in full screen. As Grim is creating his own GL, this is likely to be the last version of this one which relies heavily on outdated libraries. I appreciate his help creating this so that this particular look isn’t lost to history. I look forward to seeing the direction he takes with a modern implementation.

*** New in v1.3 ***

All modes:
Add support for Grim's movie playback (ODVS high-resolution DVD pack recommended: https://download.wcnews.com/files/wcp/wcp_hdpack_4.0.zip)
Decrease briefing line width on high-resolution monitors
Fix original FMV aspect on super-wide monitors
Fix pixel-based stars when starfield is disabled
Match 3DFX HUD transparency
Remove cockpit shake
Fix rendering of targets on the radar

With HDR Enabled:
Lens flares (were disabled for Standoff as it had super bright assets)
Make the briefing bloom less garish
Fix a bug with missile VDU which would cause the screen to flash

Twitch Overlay Released

Need a Wing Commander Academy-themed Twitch stream overlay? Who doesn't! Luckily, Reddit user Ford Crown Vic Koth has posted exactly that! Be sure and let us know if you're ever streaming Wing Commander; we're happy to spread the word!

Reminder: #Wingnut Movie Night Tonight!

This is a reminder that we have another fun #Wingnut movie night planned on Discord this evening! The ongoing theme will be movies that are referenced by Wing Commander in some way. Tonight's film is Casablanca (1942) and you can find details on why we're watching it in the announcement post here. The movie will start at 7 PM PST/10 PM EST but feel free to drop by and hang any time!

After Action Report: The Right Stuff

The Wing Commander movie club's consensus is that The Right Stuff has the right stuff. It's a movie that tells both a fascinating story and provides a unique look at the psychology behind some of our heroes (we all agreed that we did NOT have what it takes to ride rockets). Despite the three plus hour run time, The Right Stuff remains snappy and modern. It grabs you from the start and despite the complete second act shift in the narrative it feels cohesive and like everything matters. The only aspect that really sticks out as odd today is the flashes of then-modern humor that punctuate it. This was surely something that in the 80s served to distinguish it from big, slow epics but it feels somewhat dated today. But nowhere near enough to drag down this excellent film!

We talked about the literal reference to Casey having 'the right stuff' in the intro but the character you really come away from the movie appreciating is Maniac. He's exactly the type A, endlessly competitive personality that Wolfe said was needed to be one of those pioneering astronauts. In fact, the games take his career in exactly the same direction as the historical Chuck Yeager complete with lots of time spent as the hottest test pilot in the galaxy… with the Morningstar as his version of the X-1!

We also noticed that Fleet Action steals a scene from The Right Stuff. The part in the novel where a woman doesn't realize the gilded mugs at the pilots' bar represent comrades killed in action is pretty clearly taken from the scene where Gordo Cooper embarrasses himself by telling Pancho Barnes she'll be putting his picture on the bar's wall (of dead test pilots).

"Say, I like these mugs up here," the woman who had been talking to Jason announced, going up to the wall and taking one down. The bar went silent.

"Especially the ones with the gold handle. How can I get one?"

"You get killed in action, that's how. Gallagher gilds the handle of the mug when he hears that the owner bought a permanent piece of space," Jason said quietly, and the woman looked at him wide eyed and then turned pale.

Impressive Starfield Rapier Takes Flight

It seems like Bethesda's Starfield is one of those games that comes off as a little bland… until it gets into the hands of the right person. Case in point: a YouTuber named Cornelius has recreated the Wing Commander movie's CF-117b Rapier in the game… and they've made an hour long video about the process! The end result is pretty shocking and the video shows how carefully researched the whole thing was (down to images of the Confederation Handbook!). If you're interested in Starfield or just insanely cool fan work, this one's for you:

Behind the Music: tHE lOVE aNIMALS

This is the first in a series of irregular updates covering the musical artists of the 27th and 28th centuries. Wing Commander has surprisingly detailed backstories for several different groups despite the fact that we never actually got to hear any of their music! In each update we'll first offer the in-universe capsule biography and then share all the sources behind it.

tHE lOVE aNIMALS (sometimes stylzed as tHE lOVEaNIMALS and The LoveAnimals) are a retro-folk technotronic female trio that became popular in the late 2650s. The group was formed by guitarist Uil Yth, an enigmatic figure whose philosophy opposed violence in any form and referred to their output their "musical vision". Their music was said to have a "smooth, synthetic sound". The performers played modern instruments but dressed in distinct retro clothing.

In 2669, tHE lOVE aNIMALS released "let sleeping breezes lie," a record that would reach tri-platinum certification. The band supported the album with a tour and on August 17, 2669 played in Vienna, Austria, Earth in a concert that was broadcast live to servicemen aboard carriers like the TCS Victory and on leave on Xanadu. This show was attended by then-Major Christopher Blair who identified tHE lOVE aNIMALS as his favorite band.

One member of the trio passed away in the years following the war. The survivors continued played as tHE lOVEaNIMALS. In 2681, they performed a selection of songs from their 2669 sleeping breezes tour at Commodore Blair's memorial service. Yth spoke to ISDN afterwards, saying that "Although I'm opposed to violence in any form it might take, I cannot deny that the actions Blair took in his life made possible the widespread distribution of our musical vision. I only hope our frequencies can tap the spectrum of the eternal, and reach his noble spirit."

The surviving pair split sometime after this performance but in 2691 they reuinted, now as The LoveAnimals, to perform a war tour in the wake of the ongiong Nephilim invasion. Tragically, both were killed in an alien attack. Uil Yth's guitar was rescued from the attack and would go on to become an object of pilgrimate for fans.

--

tHE lOVE aNIMALS were introduced in the Wing Commander III manual, Victory Streak, in a classified advertisement about how Victory crewmen could purchase tickets for the Vienna concert. It's a great piece of lore because it offers so much in a few sentences; I especially love that it's "music from ten years ago" instead of the latest superstar.

RETRO-CONCERT

tHE lOVE aNIMALS are bringing their retro-folk technotronic show to the Victory via holo satellite next Tuesday evening at 2100 hours. Riding the crest of a tri-platinum release (let sleeping breezes lie), the female trio will be performing live from Vienna, Earth. If you enjoyed music from a decade ago, you can’t help but fall for the smooth, synthetic sound of this durable group.

Order your advance tickets now from req.ent.rec.victory – all orders will automatically be debited from your shipbank debit account.

Kilrathi Saga revises this ever so slightly, modifying it to fit into that manual's scrapbook setup. The location is changed to Xanadu, the pleasure planet from End Run! And there's even a ticket included, indicating that Blair actually saw the group in concert. That makes sense as he's about ten years behind on his life in Wing Commander III!

CONCERT UPDATE

tHE lOVE aNIMALS are bringing their retro-folk technotronic show to Xanadu via holo satellite next Tuesday evening at 2100 hours. Riding the crest of a tri-platinum release (let sleeping breezes lie), the female trio will be performing live from Vienna, Earth. If you enjoy music from a decade ago, you can’t help but fall for the smooth, synthetic sound of this durable group.

Order your advance tickets now from req.ent.rec.victory – all orders will automatically be debited from your shipbank debit account.

It actually makes quite a bit of sense that Blair was intended to be a fan of the band the entire time; Victory Streak goes through some lengths in its introduction to explain that its contents are personalized to the individual crewperson:

The articles and data contained herein were assembled by our new Quanntum 3 Artificial Publisher and reflect both your previous information solicitations and standard LS-c2 items recommended by TCN Headquarters for all relocated Wing Commanders. Additionally, the Quanntum 3 is designed to add personal touches to each month’s edition by including items that you may find of interest.

All entries are compiled from mail messages, newsgroup articles and GIFs (General Information Files) from the Shipboard Information Datanet (S.I.D.). Pertinent E.C.S. notes are given in italics.

But that wasn't the end of tHE lOVE aNIMALS! The team at Mag Force 7 scoured Wing Commander's continuity for clever references for the CTCG and picked out the retro-folk trio as one. The "Retro folk group raises pilots' spirits" and provides three power points. They were finally illustrated by brilliant artist William Hodgson in a wonderful painting that's full of cool sci fi nonsense energy. He writes about the work:

16 x 20, mixed media on hardboard. Illustration for the Wing Commander III collectible card game, a great game created by an awesome group of people -- but arriving on the CCG scene at the wrong time to be as successful as it could have been. tHE lOVE aNIMALS were a "technotronic, retro-folk band of the 28th century," serving as a morale-booster in the game, when they toured the space fleet, cheering on the pilots and crews. I figured that some futuristic instruments could be offset by granny glasses and bell bottoms to get the effect.

The Secret Ops fiction brings back the band and names the founder with additional hints as to their general background. In Commodore Blair memorial announced we learn that they were in fact Blair's favorite musical group and that they will be playing at his memorial service.

Among the requested performers and speakers, tHE lOVEaNIMALS (noted as the Commodore's favorite musical group) will perform. Also expected to be present are Saranya Carr (noted for her portrayal of "Luna Jones, Jumpscout" in the late 50's and a guest aboard Blair's first ship the TCS Tiger's Claw), Senator James Taggart, Capt. Daniel Wilford, Maj. Todd Marshall and others.

And then in Commodore Blair Remembered in Heroic Fashion we hear a little about the concert and we get a quote directly from guitarist Uil Yth. Not bad for a little bit of background lore!

The surviving members of the group tHE lOVEaNIMALS played a selection of music from the tour attended by then Major Blair in 2669. Uil Yth, the enigmatic founder of tHE lOVEaNIMALS made this statement, "Although I'm opposed to violence in any form it might take, I cannot deny that the actions Blair took in his life made possible the widespread distribution of our musical vision. I only hope our frequencies can tap the spectrum of the eternal, and reach his noble spirit."

If Privateer Online had happened, we might have gotten one more appearance. The timeline that Origin developed for the project has the band reuiniting ten years after Prophecy but then being tragically killed in an alien attack. This wasn't just fluff text, you can imagine the location or the guitar described showing up in the game world as an item or a quest!

2691

Daily Life

“The LoveAnimals” reunite to do a war tour. They are killed in an alien attack. Uil Yth’s Guitar is saved and becomes an object of pilgrimage for fans.

Sky Now Absolutely Crarmmed with Men

It looks like No Man Sky's free capital ship designing expansion is a hit! Last month we shared some shots of corvettes created by Shaggy and now he has another shot that shows off the interior of his Venture:

Here's a shot of the galley to the bridge on the Venture as well as a shot of it parked above CNS Alexandria, my floating base on my home planet. I have a shot of the cargo bay but it's not that interesting. The Venture is also a very narrow ship, compared to the Kamrani, so there wasn't a lot of space to work with room wise.

Meanwhile, a BlueSky user named Redalgo has been recreating an entire fleet of ships! Starting with the Thunderbolt VII (skeet):

Recently had some fun piecing together a corvette in homage to the Thunderbolt VII.

And now after some polishing and work on the nose...

Pakhtahn Phantom (skeet):

Next up in No Man's Sky is an attempt at recreating the Kilrathi Paktahn, specifically the Phantom variant. Cloaking device not included! Surprisingly good cockpit visibility - I was expecting the wing layout to occlude sizable portions of my field of view.

Dralthi IV (skeet)

Not sure I like how this turned out. The curvature on the Dralthi IV was challenging to replicate and only looks passable from a handful of viewing angles. Excalibur's up next once I stop being lazy and go grind to hoard up enough ship parts.

Excalibur (skeet)

"Supposedly we have the best fighter in the galaxy and all it did was collect dust on the flight deck," may have actually been for the best. Was Flash's prototype also prone to canopy jams and tachyon gun glitches to fire at sensor ghosts up to 15 degrees off of reticle?

Alright - I found out how to place slanted engine intakes! The proper angle is 30 degrees but I had to settle for 45 because lining things up is a real hassle. Might give it another attempt in the future. Also: improved fidelity for the vertical stabilizers.

Arrow (skeet)

After botching a few attempts at the Vaktoth and Darket, I got very close to completing the Arrow V. Two essential pieces of hull plate wanted to compete with the winglets for snap-points, alas, so a bulkier rebuild was necessary. The nose and engines still need revisions.

Learning a new glitch allowed me to revisit the aforementioned, smaller ship frame. Feeling a bit better about this iteration.

Sorthak (skeet)

Also got into some glitching hijinks to have shot at recreating the Kilrathi Sorthak.

A final set of revisions saw the stabilizer jets smoothed out so they don't clip through the hull. Also, the wings are sharpened to points now to give the craft a more faithful silhouette.

Alright, once more, but with warpaint and adjustments to the cockpit pod and starboard wing...

Wing Commander Movie Night: Casablanca

Despite the fact that it was longer than a Redstone missile, The Right Stuff stood the test of time! And if you can believe it, it was our 52nd film and it marked the end to the first YEAR of the Wing Commander movie club. To kick off year two, we're going back to 1942 for a genuine classic: Casablanca. It's one of those movies people in my generation maybe only they assume they've seen… it'll be interesting to see how it goes! You can join us this Friday via Discord to watch along.

Our connection to Wing Commander comes from Wing Commander II Special Operations 2 in which Minx references the movie's famous closing line, "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship", while she is evil flirting with Jazz in the third 'second chance' mission.

JAZZ: You've done well, Minx. And now that my plan has succeeded--- ---and you've brought the Morningstar prototype to the Mandarins--- ---I'm guaranteed a high-ranking position in the post-war Kilrathi regime.

MINX: But I was the one who stole the Morningstar and brought it here! You had absolutely nothing to do with it, Major! Why should you get all the reward?!

JAZZ: Please--- Call me "Jazz". I'm afraid you're only hired help, Captain. Not a sworn Mandarin. I've loyally served the Kilrathi for over ten years. Prince Thrakhath himself awarded me with a Kilrathi medal. If you became more involved in our cause, there could be a place for you as well, Captain.

MINX: "Captain" and "Major" sounds so formal, Jazz...you can call me Maria.

JAZZ: Anytime, sweetheart...

MINX: I think this is going to be the start of a beautiful friendship, Jazz.

Where can I find a copy of the movie for the watch party?

Casablanca is available for rent or purchase on the standard streaming services. It is currently streaming on HBO Max in the United States. If you would like a physical copy, the movie was released on UHD Blu-ray in 2022 and remains in print around the world. If you are not able to locate a copy please stop by the Discord and ping a CIC staff member before Friday's showing.

How do we watch the movie together?

It's pretty low tech! Simply join the Wing Commander CIC Discord on Friday and we will be chatting (in text) along with the film in the main channel. Everyone who wants to join in should bring their own copy and we will count down to play them together at 10 PM EST. Everyone is welcome and we encourage you to join in the conversation; sharing your thoughts helps make the experience better for everyone!

How can I help pick future movie club movies?

The movie club movies are voted on each week by the Wing Commander Discord. The poll is typically posted 24 hours before each week's screening and the next movie is announced at the end. The choices for the poll come from a master pool of Wing Commander-related movies. If you would like to suggest a film for inclusion in that pool you can post it to this thread.

First Ever Prophecy Simulator Guide

The research for one of our recent posts required that we determine what starbases appeared in Wing Commander Prophecy's simulator. Just one problem: there's no guide to the simulator missions online! We decided to create our own and have added a super detailed page for all ten missions to the WCPedia:

• Level 0: Basic Flight Training
• Level 1: Basic Offensive Strategies
• Level 2: Defensive Strategies and Escorting
• Level 3: Heavy Weapons Training
• Level 4: Kilrathi Fighter Gauntlet
• Level 5: Timed Fighter Sweep
• Level 6: Capital Ship Sweep
• Level 7: Carrier Defense
• Level 8 Alien Fighter Gauntlet
• Level 9: Advanced Alien Fighter Gauntlet

We've done a lot of research into how Wing Commander Prophecy works to figure out things like how the gauntlet spawns work... and in the process we've learned some very interesting new things about these oft-ignored missions! Here are some of the high points:

• If you approach within 6,500 klicks of the TCS Starbase in Mission 0 it will spawn a single Dralthi. If you destroy that Dralthi, you'll get to fight a wave of Vaktoth! This is an intentional Easter egg which the game itself refers to as the 'Cleaning Crew'. The idea is that there are hidden ways in this mission to increase your score (which Blair alludes to in the in-game description).
• Mission 0 also has a cool undocumented feature that also speaks to that goal. The game spawns a Dralthi drone for you to fight at Nav 3. It turns out the game judges the time it takes you to kill the Dralthi. If you destroy it in under ten seconds, the 'ace' wave, two Vaktoth, spawn. If it's within twenty seconds then the 'advanced wave', two Dralthi, apear. If it takes you longer than that then no additional enemies appear!
• The cargo containers in Mission 1 are leftover from Prophecy's multiplayer feature. Internally, they're intended to contain reloads for the Wasp's swarmer missiles!
• Mission 2 has two cut nav points that are still present in the game but inaccessible through regular play. Nav 3 has another wave of Kilrathi and then there's a scripted encounter if you return to where you start that has the Midway and a squadron of pilots named after the developers jump in!
• Prophecy's official guide describes the final mission as having six waves of destroyers. They're actually increasingly powerful capital ships that include two carriers and end with a Kraken ship-killer!

We aim to use this format to do the rest of the Prophecy missions in the coming weeks. If you have any suggestions for what we should add or change, please post them to the forums!

Goodbye Tchéky Karyo

We have terrible news to share today: veteran actor Tchéky Karyo passed away on Friday from cancer at age 72. Karyo was an extremely talented veteran Turkish and French actor who was known for crossing between roles in French cinema and Hollywood. Americans will know him in La Femme Nikita, Goldeneye and The Patriot to name only a few, and space fans in particular will remember his appearance as Georges Méliès in the grand finale of From the Earth to the Moon. Our own Wing Commander movie club recently spotted him in 1492: Conquest of Paradise and immediately declared him to be the only bright spot of the film! I myself knew him for The Bear and Eric Rohmer's Full Moon in Paris well before he ever graced our franchise with his talents. We want to send our strongest condolences to his family, friends, fans and everyone else that loved him. You can read a more complete account of his passing and career at Le Monde.

But of course he is beloved by the Wing Commander community for one role in particular: Commodore James "Paladin" Taggart in the 1999 film. Karyo's Paladin, a grizzled veteran of two wars who starts the movie seemingly as a grizzled privateer with divided loyalties but who is revealed to be a secret agent working against the Kilrathi. He is a mentor to Freddie Prinze Jr.'s Blair and the man that holds the secret to the movie's Pilgrim backstory. He becomes a divisive presence on the Tiger Claw, butting heads with the racist Commander Gerald but ultimately earning the loyalty of the crew and taking command. He might not have been one of the top billed twenty-something flying heroes but he was the glue that held the entire movie together, both the narrative and, thanks to his vast acting talent, the production itself. Heck, he's even the one that saves the day at the end rescuing Angel! He speaks about the role on the movie's EPK:

Even the movie's loudest detractors, who complained endlessly that his Paladin was no true Scotsman¹, couldn't begin to question his talent. Part of Chris Roberts' vision for the movie was that he would use experienced European actors for the veteran space sailors that would contrast with the young American stars playing the wet-behind-the-ears replacement pilot leads. He believed strongly that using highly experienced actors for these roles would bring the project a level of humanity above what would be expected from a lower budget science fiction film. In Jamie Russell's 2012 book, Generation XBox: How Video Games Invaded Hollywood, producer Todd Moyer talks about how Karyo and these other actors helped sell the movie in Europe where distribution partners didn't know Prinze or Lillard: "Moyer added Saffron Burrows and David Suchet for the UK, Jürgen Prochnow for Germany and Tchéky Karyo for France. 'You would never do that on a big studio movie. It was all about trying to get a bigger number from those territories,' he says." That's an interesting part of the decision but it's removing a fair amount of the passion that went into the casting. In fact, Chris Roberts was so keen on getting Karyo specifically for the role that he was was offered significantly more than any of the rest of the cast, the young American heroes included.

Karyo didn't do a great deal of press for the film but SFX magazine interviewed him for an August 1999 article embarrassingly titled Game Boys. You can see he has a wonderful grasp on the character that he says is a cross between Captain Nemo and Admiral Nelson:

Alongside the young bucks who fight and die in the war with the Kilrathi are the older cadré of seasoned warriors; beside actors like David Suchet (Executive Decision, Poirot) as the Tiger Claws commander Captain Sansky and genre veteran David Warner, who takes on Malcolm McDowell's role of Admiral Tolwyn from the games, are two of Europe's hardest - working film stars, Tcheky Karyo and Jürgen Prochnow. "I think that in a story like this, there is more at stake for the imagination," says Karyo. "We have to deal with the unknown, navigate quasars and singularities, jump black holes... we have to discover realms beyond what we know." The actor plays Paladin, a character originally envisaged as a Sean Connery -type, later played by Sliders' John Rhys Davis in the games, the hardened loner and mentor figure to the troubled young Blair. Having previously played out action roles in contemporary movies like La Femme Nikita, GoldenEye and Bad Boys, the unreal world of Wing Commander is something of a new frontier for him. "The difference (comes from) the designers who merge these very futuristic costumes and sets with the looks of the ships. But there's also this human side, a desire to bring humanity to the stars because this is not just an action movie, not just a sci -fi movie it's both, but it has a human implication and a connection between its characters."

While at first Paladin appears to be an outsider, the veteran pilot soon reveals a hidden side to his personality as the action unfolds. "That (duality) is basically his essence. He's like Captain Nemo, like Admiral Nelson who was always sent on the very shady, difficult missions. People don't like him, and he's bold but also very alone. It's nice to be a little schizophrenic at times, to play a character on two levels." Karyo mentions the relationship between his character and that of Freddie Prince. "He's important in teaching Blair about his heritage as a half Pilgrim. Through Paladin, the young pilot discovers his innate Pilgrim gift, an instinctive ability to navigate the dangerous gravity wells of a black hole jump- point." The actor adds a little of his own take on the human condition to his portrayal of the tough space warrior. "It's becoming more real every day to think of us flying up there in space; without wanting to sound mystical, if we are here now, we could be there in the future." Karyo, a man with a lineage that encompasses Turkish, Greek and Spanish goes on to describe the Wing Commander shoot as a melting pot of international talent. "For me, this is like being at home!"

Karyo also spoke very highly of Roberts' directorial skills. The movie's production notes proudly included this comment:

Tcheky Karyo (Paladin) is best known for his roles in the feature films Addicted to Love and Nikita (La Femme Nikita) and is an accomplished actor with a long list of films to his credit. Working with directors like Griffin Dunne (Addicted) and Luc Besson (Nikita) gave him different approaches to filmmaking, but Chris Roberts' Wing Commander was a unique experience, according to Karyo.

Like the rest of his castmates, Karyo has great respect for his director. "Chris is very aware of every technical aspect—he knows this field very well. Therefore, it allows him to focus on everything else: the actors' performances and the story. He is very ambitious and has a drive that leads him to achieve whatever he sets his mind to. As members of the cast, we wanted to contribute to his goal of giving this story humanity—and not just limit ourselves to making an action or science fiction film."

The Paladin role as shot was considerably more complex than what is present in the final cut. As filmed, we learn early on that Paladin isn't just an old spacehand, he was aboard the TCS Iason when it first discovered the Kilrathi. He is, in essence, the representative of the entire setting of the film and the conduit for all of the knowledge the audience will eventually receive about the Pilgrims and Kilrathi that form the backstory. Here's a cut scene where he tells Blair about the Iason and the meaning of his Kilrathi tattoo:

You can still experience this version of the movie by reading the novelization which is based on the script as shot. Fans of deep lore will also enjoy that the Confederation Handbook includes a great backstory for Paladin that is largely focused on the Iason story:

To share some of Karyo's wonderful work on Wing Commander, AD has provided four never-before-scene versions of his scenes that use material from the longer cut of the film shown to test audiences.

Touched By God

Torpedo, Ejection, and Rescue

Barring a Miracle, We have Failed

Broadside

We would also be remiss if we didn't mention another way Wing Commander gave Karyo some immortality: it was his first (and to the best of our knowledge only) film to result in a 3.5" Star Wars-scale action figure!

We hope you've enjoyed these memories of M. Karyo's work on Wing Commander. I would like to close with a couple of stories of my own that are ever so tangentially connected to his character. I think the funny little stories we add to our own history is ultimately the real value of fandom. I never got to meet Tchéky Karyo but I have some cherished stories of my own because of the character that he gave life to.

Back in 1999 when the movie's release was fast approaching, Digital Anvil launched its official website, wcmovie.com, which opened with a captain's log entry "written" by Paladin complete with letterhead and a headshot of Tchéky Karyo. But hardcore Wing Commander fans were immediately frustrated by a typo: the date was inverted, saying the movie was set in 2564 and not 2654. Knowing that would be repeated elsewhere, I convinced a friend whose identity I will take to the grave to give me the login for Digital Anvil's FTP. I snuck in and changed the file and, being a complete dork, added a graphic: Paladin's signature from the Confederation Handbook which I knew also featured a letter written by the character. Frustratingly, their webmaster saw the change and reverted it later that day. And after a few rounds of changing it myself I was locked out of the system. So I did what any other dumb teenage nerd would do: I registered a fake Chris Roberts e-mail address and sent the webmaster a note telling him to fix the date and to add the signature. And it worked!

We saw above that Paladin had a Kilrathi tattoo in the original cut of the Wing Commander movie, something that was branded on him after he was captured when the Iason was destroyed. He says he keeps it to remember that the Kilrathi (and not humans or Pilgrims) are the real enemy. It's barely visible under the collar of his sweater in the finished cut so for many years no one knew exactly what it was supposed to look like (though you could tell it seemed to match the Kilrathi typography used elsewhere in the film). For years I thought it would be amazing to have a Wing Commander tattoo… but I knew that obscure but so-important-to-the-lore one would be the one to get. When I was working on Star Citizen, it finally occurred to me to reach out to the set photographer for the movie to see if he'd caught a photo of it. And he immediately wrote back that he had! He shared a picture of Karyo with the tattoo visible and I went right out and had it done. (He also invited me to come to Luxembourg and see his racing motorcycles; people can be just so nice.) It felt like such a good way to honor the source material and also the community that has been so important to me all these years… with the time and effort it took to discover the thing adding this magic layer to it all.

I've already seen a lot of fans taking to social media and Discord to mourn Tchéky Karyo and I am right there with all of you. His take on Paladin was transformative to me, he really added something new to the character while still fitting right into the general idea of who he was and his role in the ur-story. One thing he inspired me to start years ago was writing a fictional biography of Paladin; the texture he adds to Paladin just made the concept of using the character to tell the story of the entire 27th century make sense to me. I've fiddled with versions of the project back and forth forever and even took a dive into turning it into a CIC article earlier this year… so my resolution here is to return to and finish that for everyone. I hope you'll all take your own moment to think about his work and what it has meant to you and where it has helped take you over the years. We're all connected to such an interesting degree. Please feel free to share your stories on the forums.

(Oh yeah, one more thing: fuck cancer.)

¹ - The Paladin character originated in the first Wing Commander game in essentially the same role of Blair's mentor. But in this original incarnation, Paladin was defined by his thick Scottish brogue (though he was intended to be from a space station). Karyo's Paladin is, like Karyo, French, to the point of his adding touches like his "merde" during the Broadsword torpedo attack. In fact, by the time the movie was made the Wing Commander IV novelization had long established that Paladin's accept was fake: "Paladin appeared to have lost his accent. He'd always suspected Taggart's thick, Scottish brogue had been a put-on. A spy with a burr just didn't fit Blair's image of a secret agent."